For almost three many years, Australia appeared to have a type of get-out-of-jail card that allowed it to glide via the dot-com bust and the worldwide monetary disaster with out a recession, whereas its residents principally loved excessive wages, inexpensive housing and golden prospects.

When a recession did arrive, in 2020, it was due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

However 4 years later, Australia has been unable to shake off a few of the headwinds, together with a excessive value of dwelling — the value of bread has risen 24 percent since 2021 — a choppy labor market and rising inequality. Whereas these and related points are additionally troubling nations like Britain and the US, they’re significantly stinging to many in Australia, which has lengthy seen itself because the “fortunate nation.”

Australia is among the many wealthiest, most resource-rich and steady international locations on the earth. However thousands and thousands of residents are experiencing ranges of hardship not seen in lots of many years. They are saying they’re struggling to place meals on the desk, pay for housing and well being care and canopy their utility payments. And plenty of younger Australians are confronting a actuality that their ancestors by no means needed to: that they are going to be worse off than their dad and mom or grandparents.

Robyn Northam, 28, as soon as dreamed of turning into a hairdresser. However rising lease and exorbitant baby care prices for her two kids have put coaching out of attain. Simply two generations in the past, she stated, her grandmother raised a household in her own residence as a single mother or father, whereas working part-time as a nurse.

“If you happen to’re a median Australian, that’s just about inconceivable,” stated Ms. Northam, a content material creator in Cairns who, together with her associate, pays 600 Australian {dollars}, or about $400, per week in lease. “It’s a very totally different world now.”

Australians are paying extra for nearly all the things. The pandemic ushered in hovering inflation, which has since softened, although at 3.4 p.c it stays comparatively excessive. Rents in some Melbourne neighborhoods are up nearly 50 p.c year-over-year, and rental affordability is at its lowest in no less than 17 years. Shopper sentiment has barely budged since tumbling in 2020.

Owners are additionally beneath stress. Australian mortgages are typically fastened for just a few years at a time, and because the central financial institution has tried to rein in costs by elevating rates of interest, charges have tripled to six.7 p.c lately.

This pressure has resulted in a spike in working households searching for assist. Over 16 years, stated Dave McNamara, the chief government of Foodbank Victoria, “via bush fires and pandemics, I’ve not seen something on the size that we’re at present experiencing of individuals from all walks of life needing meals reduction.”

“Issues are so much worse than they have been prepandemic, and there’s little inspiration for us to be optimistic,” stated Nikki Hutley, an unbiased economist in Sydney. “Everybody’s doing it actually robust.”

Economists have lengthy argued that an excessive amount of Australian wealth is tied up within the housing market, at the same time as shoddy coverage, building shortages and excessive immigration have introduced an already low housing provide to a crunch level.

Polling by the assume tank Per Capita final yr discovered that fewer than one in four Australians who did not own a home anticipated to have the ability to accomplish that. “That’s not essentially the be-all and end-all, when you’ve acquired a extremely steady rental system,” stated Ms. Hutley, “however we’ve horrible legal guidelines on this nation.”

A scarcity of leases has additionally despatched rents skyrocketing in some neighborhoods, pushing younger folks farther and farther out of cities. In Sydney, the exodus of younger households, one latest report warned, dangers making a “metropolis with no grandchildren.”

Talitha Vermeulen, 25, has been seeking to transfer inside that metropolis together with her associate for the final 4 months. Typically, accessible properties are leased earlier than viewings may even happen, she stated. “It’s simply been irritating to not even get an opportunity to see the place.”

With its wealth, stability and pure assets, Australia has extra benefits than most different nations — life expectancy charges and wages are nonetheless among the many world’s highest, with wage growth outstripping inflation final yr. The inventory market is buying and selling close to file ranges.

But it’s not evident that it’s dwelling as much as its ample potential, stated Julianne Schultz, an instructional and the writer of “The Concept of Australia.” “The factor that I maintain coming again to is: It could possibly be so a lot better,” she stated, including: “It’s a type of lack of ambition.”

Although Australians usually proudly check with “the fortunate nation,” the remark by the tutorial and author Donald Horne was initially supposed as one among reproach to the nation’s leaders, whom he noticed as incurious and unimaginative.

And regardless of the nation’s plentiful bounty and its oft-stated love of egalitarian values, Australia’s wealth is increasingly unevenly distributed, because the nation joins the ranks of others confronting rising inequality and financial and generational strains.

Financial unhappiness has translated to the bottom ranges of “life satisfaction” since information started 22 years in the past, in line with the Australian Unity Wellbeing Index. The excessive value of dwelling, troubling international politics and rising inequality are all contributing elements, stated Kate Lycett, the lead researcher. “It’s an enormous variety of people who find themselves struggling to make ends meet,” she stated.

On a latest Monday morning, folks waited exterior a meals financial institution at a church in Richmond, a neighborhood of Melbourne. The meals financial institution helps greater than 100 households, and demand has elevated sharply during the last six months, stated Francis Flood, the coordinator.

“We’ve seen lots of people who work however can’t make it via to the tip of the month,” he stated. “We’re undoubtedly serving to individuals who, when you noticed them on the road, you wouldn’t assume could be utilizing a meals financial institution.”

Even some who personal their houses outright are struggling. Tracey Shepherd, 60, lives a brief stroll from the seashore, in picture-perfect Surfers Paradise, Queensland. A former public servant, she has well being points which have made discovering everlasting work a wrestle, and he or she is surviving on her retirement financial savings whereas she awaits a call on a incapacity profit.

With the excessive value of groceries and will increase in upkeep charges on her condo, life feels precarious, she stated. “Once I was youthful, they’d say we’re the fortunate nation. It’s not like that now.”